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Overview

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel, Bag of Bones, is a story of grief and a lost love's enduring bonds, of a new love haunted by the secrets of the past, of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire.

Set in the Maine territory King has made mythic, Bag of Bones recounts the plight of 40-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, who is unable to stop grieving even four years after the sudden death of his wife, Jo, and who can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his word processor.

Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike finally returns to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home.

He finds his beloved Yankee town familiar on its surface, but much changed underneath -- held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, who twists the very fabric of the community to his purpose: to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike is drawn into their struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here -- and what do they want of Mike Noonan?

As vivid and enthralling as King's most enduring works, Bag of Bones resonates with what Amy Tan calls 'the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination.' It's no secret that King is our most mesmerizing storyteller. In Bag of Bones -- described by Gloria Naylor as 'a love story about the dark places within us all' -- he proves to be one of our most moving.

Product Details

About the Author

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes The Bill Hodges Trilogy—Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel), Finders Keepers, and End of Watch—and the story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. His epic series, The Dark Tower, is the basis for a major motion picture starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. It is also now a major motion picture starring Bill Skarsgård. King is the recipient of the 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble ReviewIn all of Stephen King's enormous body of writing, some of his best works have featured authors as protagonists. Among these, the chilling The Dark Half, the utterly creepy Desperation, and Misery, a true masterpiece, stand out. His new book, Bag of Bones, which revolves around bestselling thriller author Mike Noonan, can now be added to this list. Bones is a hauntingly beautiful novel that will touch your heart as easily as it tingles your spine. It has elements of classic King horror, but it's also something of a departure, as the author explores a few areas of the human mind and heart that are rarely significant roles in horror fiction. The result is an exceptional and excitingly original novel that is destined to take its place among King's most memorable.

Critics have said that Bag of Bones represents a more mature Stephen King. Real King fans know that he has been writing some of literature's most mature works since publishing The Dead Zone, but it's true that in this novel he displays a heightened emotional sensibility  which undoubtedy widens his appeal to an even larger audience. Die-hard King fans should rest assured that Bag of Bones doesn't skimp on the fear; quite the contrary. It offers up a horror that's very much in the tradition of The Green Mile: it's a softly dazzling, beautiful, almost quiet sort of horror that that creeps in a little more slowly but then takes a lot longer to leave your system. Bag of Bones is a haunting chiller  not only scary but melancholy as well. Itcontainssome truly heart-wrenching scenarios, among them the protagonist's grieving over the unexpected loss of his wife, who has the unfortunate distinction of being knocked off in the book's first paragraph.

On a very hot day in August of 1994, my wife told me she was going down to the Derry Rite Aid to pick up a refill on her sinus medicine prescription  this is stuff you can buy over the counter these days, I believe. I'd finished my writing for the day and offered to pick it up for her. She said thanks, but she wanted to get a piece of fish at the supermarket next door anyway; two birds with one stone and all of that. She blew a kiss at me off the palm of her hand and went out. The next time I saw her, she was on TV. That's how you identify the dead here in Derry  no walking down a subterranean corridor with green tiles on the walls and long fluorescent bars overhead, no naked body rolling out of a chilly drawer on casters; you just go into an office marked 'Private' and look at a TV screen and say yep or nope.

It's the delicate touch he shows here that has some previously unfriendly critics singing King's praises. The understatement and subtlety with which he traces and then fleshes out Mike's agony at the death of his wife early on in the book bespeaks a writer who is masterfully in control of his voice and narrative. This is not a story where a lot can be given away before hand  much of the pleasure of reading it is in the unusual and often surprising way it unfolds.

To give a very general idea of the plot though, the death of Mike's wife pulls him into a mystery that brings him to Sara Laughs, the summerhouse that he shared with his wife. At Sara Laughs, Mike finds himself involved in a disturbing child custody tug-of-war that erupts into a terrifying battle between forces of good and evil, present in both earthly and unearthly forms.

Without question Bag of Bones is ambitious. There's plenty of all-out terror here to satisfy his existing fan base, but there's also a truly touching love story that will appeal to many readers who have not given King a try since his early pure-horror days. In sustaining these two very different currents, and seamlessly combining them into one brilliantly crafted story, King has created one of his most expansive and artistically successful works  it's a great novel for long-time fans and newcomers alike. Matt Schwartz

This is King's most romantic bookand ghosts are up and about from the get-go...The big surprise here is the emotional wallop the story packs.

Newsweek

Bag of Bones proves that King is as seductive a storyteller as ever, pulling his readers along as he explores the hidden evils of small-town America.

People Magazine

Bag of Bones gets off to a most promising start....impressive as it may be, the story leaves you with the feeling that it is an afterthought [to avoid] whatever the novel's subject started out to be....In a typically outsized performance by Mr. King, this ambivalence toward his craft pervades mysteriously.  The New York Times

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

. . .[T]he quality of [King's] writing is considerably less than tremendous. . . .Even at the level of basic metaphor King almost invariably disappoints. . . .Nor is there must to admire in the story of the blocked writer. . . .[his] prose is not close enough to the standard we ought to expect of literary artifacts that aspire to be taken seriously. National Review

...[T]he quality of [King's] writing is considerably less than tremendous....Even at the level of basic metaphor King almost invariably disappoints....Nor is there much to admire in the story of the blocked writer....[his] prose is not close enough to the standard we ought to expect of literary artifacts that aspire to be taken seriously.  National Review

James Bowman

King the master of horror seems to be at war [here] with King the novelist of people and their ordinary lives....Inevitably, the everyday and the supernatural levels turn out to be connected....in the end, [Bones] can't decide whether it wants to be a serious work of literary fiction or a horror blockbuster.  The New York Times Book Review

Daniel Mendelsohn

Whenever you're positive  just positive  you know where this ghost story is heading, that's exactly when it gallops off in some jaw-dropping new direction.Entertainment Weekly

Tom DeHaven

Leaving Viking for the storied literary patina of Scribner, current or not, King seemingly strives on the page for a less vulgar gloss. And he eases from horror into romantic suspense, while adding dollops of the supernatural. The probable model: structural echoes of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, do sound forth, although King never writes one paragraph herein to match du Maurier's opening moonscapes of Manderley. What comes through nevertheless is a strong pull to upgrade his style and storytelling in this his 50th year. Yes, he actually does write better if with less energy and power than in Desperation (1996). In fact, attacking the race problem in lily-white Maine, he even assumes an almost Dreiserian seriousness in his final paragraphs. Well, the story: romantic-suspense novelist Michael Noonan, who summers in Castle Rock on Dark Score Lake, falls into a four-year writer's block when his wife Johanna dies of a brain blowout. Now 40 and childless, Mike has salted away four extra novel manuscripts in his safe-deposit box, one of them 11 years old (shades of Richard Bachman!), and keeps up a pretense of productivity by publishing a "new" novel each year. Meanwhile, he finds himself falling for Mattie Devore, a widowed mother half his age. Mattie's late husband is the son of still-thriving half-billionaire computer king Max Devore, 85 years old and monstrous, who plans to gain possession of Mattie's three-year-old daughter, the banally drawn Kyra. Mike's first big question: Did Johanna cuckold him during his long hours writing? If so, will her character reverse our understanding of her, as does Rebecca de Winter's? And how can he help Mattie fight off Max andkeep Kyra? The supernatural elements, largely reserved for the interracial climax, are standard King but fairly mild. Philosophically limited but a promising artistic shift for a writer who tried something like this with 1995's failure, Rose Madder.

Kirkus Reviews

Anne Rivers Siddons I loved Bag of Bones. It's Stephen King for the new millennium, with all the heart and wit showing through the suspense. I always knew he'd do this. Such an evocation of love, grief and healing.

San Diego Union Tribune For those of you who think that Stephen King writes only horror fiction, think again....In Bag Of Bones, King offers readers a rare blend of luminous prose, thought-provoking themes and masterful storytelling.

Amy Tan What I admire most about Bag of Bones is its intelligence of voice, not only the craftsmanship  the indelible sense of place, the well-fleshed characters, the unstoppable story line  but the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination. It places both the ghost story and Stephen King in their proper place on the shelf of literary American fiction.

Entertainment WeeklyBag of Bones is, hands down, King's most narratively subversive fiction. Whenever you're positive  just positive!  you know where this ghost story is heading, that's exactly when it gallops off in some jaw-dropping new direction.

Mademoiselle This is King at his clever, terrifying best.

Newsweek Contains some of [King's] best writing...This is King's most romantic book, and ghosts are up and about from the get-go....The big surprise here is the emotional wallop the story packs.

The New York Times Book Review Stephen King is so widely accepted as America's master of paranormal terrors that you can forget his real genius is for the everyday...This is a book about reanimation: the ghosts', of course, but also Mike's, his desire to re-embrace love and work after a long bereavement that King depicts with an eye for the kind of small but moving details that don't typically distinguish blockbuster horror novels.

People magazine Bag of Bones proves that King is as seductive a storyteller as ever, pulling readers along as he explores the hidden evils of small-town America.

Minneapolis Star Tribune King has honed his talent into a unique American voice, broader and more ambitious than most of his peers....[Bag of Bones] has depth....It's a ghost story, a love story, a story about race and power...One more thing: Yes, it's scary. Of course it's scary.

Atlanta Journal & Constitution It may be that after thirty-one novels, Stephen King is just getting started....Bag of Bones may be Stephen King's most ambitious novel ...the effort has inspired a new directness and maturity in his work....Very few writers can convey the passive terrors of nightmares better than King, and he crafts one amazing dream sequence after another.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This is my absolute favorite book EVER!! I totally fell in love with the characters and missed them when I was finished with the book. I have read 15 SK novels and this is the only one that gave me trouble sleeping. SK is the only author I know who can mix a love story into a horror story, add a few racy and explicit sex scenes (as is his style)and wind up with one spectacluar novel!! For those of you who think SK only does horror... READ THIS BOOK!

bookholiday

More than 1 year ago

I enjoyed reading this book. Very suspenseful. one of the best of S.King

Corey_Andreas

More than 1 year ago

I am, by no means, a Stephen King fan. I don't dislike him necessarily, but he's not my favorite by far. I had read one his older novels, and quite a lot of his short stories, but I could never really get into them in the way I got into other books, or other authors. It's his style. I guess with him there's this very weighty palpable air of: "I'm a writer! Are you enjoying my writing?! These words, that I'm writing to you, dear reader?!" Understand, I don't mean this is in the sense that he's arrogant, or pretentious at all, it's just to me, that seems to be his style of writing, and the connection that he feels between himself, being the writer, and his readers, is strong--one in which it seems that he's perpetually aware that he's writing TO someone. And it shows--that attitude manifests itself at the output of his novels and short stories-and that's a good thing, it really is. It's a good attitude to have, if I'm reading him, right. Just not so much for me, personally.
So, when I was given Bag of Bones to read, I wasn't sure if I would even be able to get into it.
I was dead wrong.
I read this book-529 pages-in roughly four sittings. I seriously couldn't put it down, and, at first, I had no idea why. King's aforementioned style is still there, he didn't abandon it for this one, but for some reason it just worked for me in this context. I realized that the hilariously obsessive tone that King gave to Mike Noonan, the main character, is a huge reason why I was so absorbed in his story. Every little thought that ever crosses Mike's mind is dragged out of his head and painted onto the page for us to read-no matter how irreverent, heartbreaking, wonderful, vulnerable or premature those thoughts may be. There were quite a few moments during my reading, that I actually laughed out loud by one of Noonan's quick, jarringly wry comments-one time in which I had to close the book until I could gather myself enough to open the book and move on. That doesn't happen to me. Ever. Mike Noonan is a real person, and despite Mike Noonan's intelligence, and highly successful life, in his mind, he's an everyman. Mike Noonan is an incredibly round character, bursting with life. So much so, that you literally feel what he feels, as he's feeling it. Mike is real, and he feels alive, as do all the other characters in the book-no matter how small their role. Everyone is believable, and almost nothing is left to the imagination-right down to mannerisms, gait, and accents. Everything is fleshed out ad nauseum, at times, and the book is better for it.
To me, the third act, or whatever you want to call it, suffers the way most Stephen King's stories suffer. And it makes sense, I guess, when you think about it, considering his stories do follow a certain formula. Stephen is one of the best at setting up a story, and leaving tension. It's when King tries to resolve it, that we run into trouble. I just don't think he's very good at writing action-or at least I'm not fond of the way he writes action. Maybe it's because of the fact that he is so formulaic, that he's just naturally better at telling what could be there, instead of telling you what is there. The ending to Bag of Bones is a stupid lumbering mess, and really isn't that scary..just weird.
But then, the epilogue seems to bring things back home, and all is right again with a story that you'll have grown to love.
So, do I recommend this story? Absolutely. I think it's one of the best novels I've read.

Thomas_McEwen

More than 1 year ago

In my opinion King writes best when he writes in the first person narrative. Bag of Bones may be the best example of this.
This is as much a story of a loving marriage as it is a ghost story. The details of the relationship between Mike and Jo Noonan add a level of believability to this story that only intensifies the horrors that are revealed. Interspaced with this rich and detailed view of lives lived by two people King inserts doubts and creeping dread and suspense, along with a few writing tricks and gimmicks that tease the reader into saying, &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t I see that?&rdquo;
I do not consider Bag of Bones to be Kings master piece, but I do consider it to be the work of a master story teller and is easily in Kings top three. This story will grab you on page one, and it won&lsquo;t let you go till the last page. You won&rsquo;t like everything that happens. But, that just adds to the realism of the story.
I give it 5 stars.

Mikey_G

More than 1 year ago

this is my first introduction to *new-er* King. I've read his older novels and "The Stand" is actually one of my favorite books. I've heard that people don't realy like the newer novels because I guess they feel he's "lost his edge". I don't feel this way. "Bag of Bones" was amazing on so many levels. There of course is a sense of terror with all of the ghosts and the dark history at Sara Laughs. But at its core, it is a love story. While I haven't read any other newer novels, I am very impressed with this novel and will continue to read more recent novels by King. I highly reccommend this novel!!!

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

If you are a Stephen King fan, you will love this. It's the old Stephen King again as in Salem's Lot. Loved the characters and didn't want the book to end! Scary. Riveting. Touching. Great read!

Guest

More than 1 year ago

There are very few books I've read more than once. VERY few. This is one of them. I loved it because it's so very King, but more. I hadn't read King in years before I picked up this book, but when I did, I remembered why I used to love his books so much. It's both down-to-earth and ethereal enough to make you look over your shoulder every once in a while, and the trademark King sarcasm is still there. It's a hauntingly beautiful book-- I'll read it again, I'm sure-- once I get it back from my co-worker!

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

What a gorgeous haunted love story. About as romantic as Stephen King will ever get. :)

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

What can I say? Stephen King is the master of horror and suspense. This novel lived up to my expectations and more. Keeps you glued to the pages even after you know you have to get some sleep. Awesome read!!

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

I have been a Stephen King fan since childhood. Bag of Bones is another great book that delivers everything you would expect from the author. The story line is fabulous with a ton of unexpected twists and turns. Just when you think you know what is coming, it turns and it is something else completely. This book is another late night page turner keeping you up at night and filling your dreams with suspense once asleep!!! The characters are entertaining as well as intriguing as always. He sets the scene beautifully which draws you right in!!!! Do yourself a favor and go out and pick up this book, you won't be disappointed!!!

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

I am a Huge Stephen King fan. When I enter a B&N or any bookstore, I always go straight to where the King novels are. I've a read numerous novels by King and can fairly say that Bag of Bones is my all time favorite. I honestly might have to read it again! If you love King's amazing sense of imagination and the crazy twists he puts on his stories then this is definetly a fantastic book to read. I would read it every night before I went to sleep and it honestly made me feel somewhat uneasy. The image he portrays with Sara Laughs is a clear one that you can find on the back roads of any lakeside community.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

One of his very best. I've read about 80% of his books. L Paul

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

I pooped halfway through

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

SK has written good and lousy books, Under the Dome was weak, but I am a fan. I found this book as good as The Shining. The story starts out simply, grows, and becomes more complex throughout the book. The story and characters are very well developed and there are story curves throughout the book that keep you saying, &quot;Oh, wasn't expecting that&quot;. Everytime I thought I had things figured out, I was wrong. I was compelled to keep picking up the book to read further and I never lost interest. The story is complex and you have to pay attention to keep up and get the full impact of the book. The ending was unexpected, as was many of the curves in the book, and I thought this book was very well worth reading.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

King at his best..beautifully written..wonderful characters...first time King ever made me cry

This was a classic the moment King wrote it, and the movie version with Jack Nicholson is the pinnacle of King's career I think. Somehow, over the years, he was gotten less interesting as an author. But... The Stand, Tommyknockers, It... all classic King. My favorite author through the 70s, 80s, King seems to have slipped a bit. The old books, like The Stand, will always be my favorites.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

This book was very addicting. I will admit I had to stop reading a few times at night because it was so frightening.